UPDATE: Bay News 9 is reporting that White House confirms Florida High Speed Rail funding!

I may not get a chance to blog again before the huge announcement on Thursday that Tampa will spring to the forefront of a national high speed rail policy.  It is mind-boggling to me that, as I sit here some 1,000 miles away in a New York City Union Square Starbucks, that Tampa is about to go hardcore rail without me.  Okay, hardcore might mean a complete light rail system, but a high speed rail terminus connecting downtown Tampa and its bevy of available high rise residentials (soon to be the core of an Orlando bedroom community if this really happens) is enough to jump-start light rail along with just about everything else. 

Tampa Rail, this website, has always been about Hillsborough light rail, high speed rail, and the Teco Line Streetcar system.  After Thursday, Tampa may well have two out of three.  A-Flippin'-Mazing.  No, wait, let's not contain ourselves: A-Fucking-Mazing.

Of course, the question on everyone's mind right now is whether or not Obama is really going to offer up the goods when he speaks at the University of Tampa, or, are all of us enthusiasts and hopefuls like me way off track, to use another track pun.   Could we possibly be?

Let me put my assessment this way.  If after all the talk out there about the prospects of Obama's visit to Tampa being to announce the funding and effective execution of high speed rail, were wrong, that would have been leaked information by now.  Someone on staff would have tapped Obama on the shoulder and said "You know, bunch of wackos down there - and one in New York City - think you're gonna sign off on that rail system, sir.  Should we let them go on that way for 2 weeks until you finally reach the podium?".  At that, Obama'd surely have had someone come down and pat the fire out ahead of his visit.  He sure as hell wouldn't leave Pam or Ed that close to a win only to punch them in their stomachs during a great speech about clean drinking water, or something. 

Pam in particular seems pretty optimistic.  And who among us would stand to see her cry?  It would be unbearable and surely the White House folks understand this.  Ed Turanchik, after falling under such criticism for his lofty light rail plans during Hillsborough's mid-90s Conservatism, and, later, his failed bid to bring the Olympics to Tampa/Orlando, would probably finally throw himself off the Skyway.  The guy saved his wins up for the big one, and he's about to get it at long last.

Yes, my take on whether Obama will be directing that fabled shovel to actually turn: Count on it.

Which means, I can only watch from afar, thrilled, yet anguished at my distance, while Channelside roars to life over the next decade; light rail becomes a natural extension to the new-mode thinking, and even the streetcar finds new life in sea of Channelside residents acclimating to transportation choice.

Folks, if I can make it to blog following a positive announcement - I will.  And surely, I'll be using the screaming font.